Fine line black tattoo of two crossed arrow shapes with a crescent moon, placed on the shoulder of a person with dark hair and a beaded chain necklace.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Crossed arrows and crescent moon on a shoulder

Fine line · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo

The tattoo shows two long diagonal lines crossing in an X shape, each ending in a short cross bar, with a small crescent moon and a tiny mark near the top where they meet. The linework is thin and even, in solid black ink with no shading. The small design sits on the upper shoulder against a warm, softly lit background, with the subject's lips and chin visible at the top right.

Fine line Shoulder Arrow Crescent moon Cross Line

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Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The ravens have taken the chapel roof, and you have taken the fletcher's bench under the north tower, where the rain blows in sideways. Your brother rode for Ludlow with the last cart and left you his unfinished shafts, a bundle of ash wrapped in oilcloth, and a knife with a bone grip worn pale by his thumb. The garrison has shrunk to you, a cook with one eye, and a boy who sleeps on the gatehouse stairs.

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Over the gate, above the iron teeth of the portcullis, someone carved two long lines that cross like shears, each ending in a short bar. The old captain swore that while those arrows crossed, the castle would hold, and beneath them he scratched a crescent moon so the men would know which nights to watch the valley. He died of a flux in the spring. You have kept the mark clean because it is the only thing in this place that nobody has asked you to spend.

The Bishop's men come up the valley on a moonless night, and you climb the north tower with the bow your brother strung for you. By the thin paring of the moon you find the lead rider's horse against the ditch and loose one shaft across the water. It takes him under the arm, and the others turn back toward the river to lick their wounds.

At dawn you take the knife and cut a second crescent beside the first, a little lower, so that the next keeper will know the castle held for one more night. Then you go down to see whether the cook has any bread, and you leave the bench where the rain can find it.